When styling hair, it is desirable to be able to curl the hair in a wide variety of styles. Oftentimes, however, it is necessary to first straighten the hair to remove the natural kinks or curls to make the hair more manageable. Afterwards, the hair may be curled in many different styles. Heated curling irons are commonly used for these purposes. However, to carry out the two steps of straightening and curling, multiple irons have generally been required to carry out the separate steps. This slows down the hair styling process and creates other efficiency problems by having to constantly change irons.
There exist certain combined hair straightening and curling irons but they have drawbacks. One type of such iron comprises semi-circular barrels having a flat inner portions. The flat inner portions come together over the hair for straightening, and do an adequate job for that purpose. However, when the hair is held between the flat portions while curling around the outer barrel portions, an unwanted crease, or "fish hook", in the hair results at the point of contact with the area on the iron where the flat portion meets the barrel portion. Other irons exist which incorporate flat portions which come together over the hair for straightening, and a third barrel-shaped element which closes on to the outer barrel surface of one of the flat portions for curling. This arrangement can be cumbersome in that the iron must be manipulated to be switched between either the straightening or the curling mode. Thus, for each step, a different arrangement of the three part iron must be set up which can also cause efficiency problems.